CNN's Jeffrey Toobin was characteristically candid about the latest shambolic developments in the John Edwards corruption trial.
After days of protracted deliberation, the jury revealed on Thursday that they had reached a unanimous verdict on just one of the six counts that Edwards has been charged with. The judge in the trial sent the jury back to deliberate further. (UPDATE: The jurors returned to the courtroom later during the day. Edwards was found not guilty of one of six charges. The jury could not reach a verdit on the other five counts, leaving the judge to declare a mistrial.)
Speaking just after the announcement, Toobin was frank.
"This is a mess," he said. "This is not how a trial is supposed to end ... I assure you that the legal term for this is 'a mess.' Juries are supposed to resolve an entire case."
Toobin said that the prosecution could theoretically accept a partial verdict and then retry Edwards on the other counts, but that this would be a "cumbersome, expensive ... some would say unfair" way to go about things.
Posted: 05/31/2012 3:28 pm Updated: 05/31/2012 5:48 pm